C. A. Earle Rinker letter to Frank Crampton, March 8, 1957

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DeLand, Fla. Mar. 8, 1957 Mr. Frank Crampton, P.O. Box 468, Willows, Calif. Dear Old Timer: One of the greatest thrills I have had for along time was receiving your letter Feb. 28th last which just reached me here after several forwardings. Yes I am the same Rinker that worked in J.D. and H.D. MacMasters office. How well I remember that shooting scrape in front of your assay office. I had landed in Goldfield about midnight the night before. The next morning I reported to MacMasters office where Tom Condon and several other brokers and promoters had desk space. I had formerly worked for Tom Condon who was oil Operator and drilling contractor in Parker Ind. He made two or three trips to Goldfieid while I was in his office and he became so enthused with Goldfield in 1906 he closed out all his holdings and business in Parker City, Ind. He closed out there with a little over $500,00 and said he was going to Goldfield to make it a million. He said so much about the camp he had me enthused. Told him if anything in way of office work came up to let know. After he closed his office I went back to my home town and got a job as time-keeper and paymaster in a glass bottle factory. One day I received a wire from him to come at once as he had a good position for me in a brokers office. In two days time I was on the way. This was late in summer of 1906. I landed in Goldfieid just after Gans-Nelson Fight. The rough outdoor arena was still up. To get back to that shooting in front of the assay office. As I said before I reported next morning to MacMaster office. They told me not to try to work that day but mosey about the camp and get my feet on the ground and come in to office frequently to ask questions or get any information I wanted. I had been in and out of the office two or three times and went back about noon. Now this is my version as well as I remember it. I was standing in front door of the office when one fellow in door of assay office and another in the street were shooting at each other with six shooters. After a few shots were exchanged without results the man in the assay ducked back inside and came out with a sawed off shot gun and let the fellow in the street have it. That ended it. When he hit the fellow in the street that fellow let out a scream or more like a squeal that you would not have recognized as coming from a human being. As soon as the shooting was over two men ran to the fellow in the street and got him to his feet and started up the street to doctors office just a few doors up but he was dead before they reached the doctors office. There I was the tenderest of all tender-feet. If I had had the price of a ticket back home I would have been out on next train. But I landed with less than five bucks in my pocket. I had an uncle in Goldfield by name of J.W.H. Fenwick who was generally known as Jack Fenwick. If you happened to have any connection with Masonic Lodge there you would have known him. He got me quieted down and I stuck until early winter of 1908. Were you there in 1907 I believe it was when the Influenza hit camp? There were so many dying and the ground frozen they couldn't dig graves. They stacked the bodies in rough pine boxes at the morgue and had a room full of those boxes loaded waiting for weather to moderate until they could bury them. I am unable to remember you personally but I sure have a mental picture of that assay office that will stick. I was not in Rawhide but I did associate with a Mordont Taylor commonly known as Tex Taylor. Had some very interesting experience with him. I had grubstaked Taylor and two others fellows to prospect on what they thought was a good showing about 35 miles south of Goldfield. I forget the name of the place but I think it was some Springs. I hired the fellow that drove the water tank wagon in Goldfield and also done light

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C.A. Earle Rinker's reminiscences of mining and assaying life in Goldfield, Nevada, in the first decade of the 1900s. He recalls two different shootings, drilling contests, water use by the local hotels and a 1907 influenza epidemic.